CTU leaders have been on a victory lap of sorts since the September strike, with union activists seeing themselves as protectors of union power during a time of membership decline and education reform at the state and local level.

Theyve also taken on the role of social activities, fighting for causes like the Occupy movement and gay marriage, which have nothing to do with education.

Some union leaders have called for violence and other radical tactics to achieve social goals.

When Lewis appeared at the Illinois Labor History Societys Salute to Labors Historic Heroes from the History Makers of Today, she didnt disappoint the crowd. She threw gasoline onto the fire of class warfare, and even mentioned mob killings of wealthy Americans.

 Do not think for a minute that the wealthy are ever going to allow you to legislate their riches away from them. Please understand that. However, we are in a moment where the wealth disparity in this country is very reminiscent of the robber baron ages. The labor leaders of that time, though, were ready to kill. They were. They were just  off with their heads. They were seriously talking about that.

Some in the audience laughed and clapped at her remark.

I dont think were at that point, Lewis laughingly replied, without specifying when that point might arrive. And thats scary to most people. But the key is they think nothing of killing us. They think nothing of putting our people in harms way. They think nothing of lethal working conditions.

She then used schools without air conditioning as an example of lethal working conditions.

The true labor leaders of the robber baron age would probably roll over in their graves and remind Ms. Lewis that she and her colleagues have it quite good.

Big salaries with an average income in the $70,000 range. Generous benefits and pensions. Limited work days and nine-month work years. What are these people complaining about?

Lewis also used the occasion to mock job creators.

Which side are you going to be on? So are we going to be on the side of justice? Are we going to be on the side of a living wage for every person? Or are we going to be on the side of people whose entire mentality is based on a lie. Job creators. Really? Then why have we lost so many jobs?

With such a cynical, un-American attitude coming from their union president, does anyone really expect Chicago teachers to introduce students to the many virtues of the free market system, or the nobility of taking a risk to become an entrepreneur and therefore a job creator?

As domestic terrorist-turned-professor Bill Ayers acknowledged, leftists have the power in our schools and classrooms, and theyre taking full advantage.

The Chicago Teachers Union is the tip of the spear in terms of social justice unionism. Its a union led by far-left radical activists who are determined to alter American society through our schools and children. Advocating for the interests of teachers is simply a means toward a larger and nastier goal.

It would interesting (though dangerous) to be present at a speech like this and completely go along with the speaker, but add a twist:

"Yeah! Kill 'em! Kill the rich! Off with their Heads! And then we'll kill the blacks!"

I think a lot of people would be smiling while listening to a rant like that -- right up until the kicker. Then they would suddenly be shocked that violent, hatefilled extremist had suddenly shown up out of nowhere.

4
posted on 01/08/2013 10:51:57 AM PST
by ClearCase_guy
(Nothing will change until after the war.)

:: Do not think for a minute that the wealthy are ever going to allow you to legislate their riches away from them. ::

So, who are these “wealthy” that you speak of Ms. “Teachers” Union President. Would they be the ones that employ you; that pay your wages for a days work? Whoa re thse folks? Aren’t they the TAX PAYERS? Even the single mom with 4 kids with a part-time job pays taxes. IS she who you speak of?

:: They think nothing of putting our people in harms way. ::

So, just how dangerous is it in your classroom and, since it may be lethal, why do you continue to expose the children of tax payers to such danger?

Karen, you are ignorant and self-indulgent.

17
posted on 01/08/2013 11:07:17 AM PST
by Cletus.D.Yokel
(Bread and Circuses; Everyone to the Coliseum!)

Her dreadlocked hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her nails were painted green with silver sparkles (she changes the color often). The room was littered with souvenirs: A glass block etched with the words Bitch Brick rested on her desk, and a pair of blue boxing gloves hung on the wall, a gift from a friend after Lewis told the Chicago Tribune she was going to buy some following the announcement of the mayors education team.

A Halloween mask of Rahm Emanuels face was tacked onto a shelf in front of Lewiss desk, staring straight at her and leaving little doubt that she considers the mayor her chief opponent. Yet Lewis marveled that she and Emanuel dont like each other more. I dont understand it, she said, shaking her head. We should be best friends. We have way more in common than we dont.

Shortly before he took office in May 2011, Emanuel invited Lewis to a dance performance and dinner at Henri, the upscale French restaurant across from Millennium Park. She said they had the same tastesthey both drank malbec and ordered the lamband talked about their shared love of ballet. They are also both Jewish. Raised Lutheran, Lewis converted in the early 1990s when she was looking for something spiritual and says she was drawn by the idea that you could question God.

The evening was meant to establish a working relationship. But the conversation took a turn when, according to Lewis, Emanuel said that 25 percent of students in CPSor nearly 100,000 kids at the districts current enrollmentwere never going to make it and that he wasnt going to throw money at the problem. The comment came to light a year later when Lewis talked about it in an on-camera interview with local NBC reporter Mary Ann Ahern; Emanuel denied it, calling the story totally false. The episode likely damaged whatever trust they had established.

Almost soft-spoken in person, Lewis is a natural performer and a forceful orator, often building up a head of steam around a single point. She also has a tendency to take things too far. The unfiltered Lewis was on full display in a speech she gave to a convention of teachers last fall in Seattle, where she committed the gaffe that introduced her to the greater public. I am the only black woman in the class of 1974 from Dartmouth College, she said, only to deflate her own accomplishment in the next breath with a sarcastic woo and a glance. People are impressed, she continued. Let me tell you, I spent those years smoking lots of weed. Self-medicating. The crowd tittered.

This was just three minutes into a 32-minute ramble that veered from the bankruptcy of Milton Friedmanstyle capitalism to billionaire education reformer Penny Pritzker to the now-infamous mocking of the speech impediment of Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education. This guy who has the nerve to stand up and say, Education is the thivil rights ithue of our time,  Lewis said, imitating Duncan. You know he went to private school because if he had gone to public school hed have had that lisp fixed.

She said “But the key is they think nothing of killing us. They think nothing of putting our people in harms way. They think nothing of lethal working conditions.

Chicago classrooms are “lethal working conditions”? Now why would that be? Would it be because the little darlings were raised in two-parent, God-fearing homes who value Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness?

Almost every Commie that has even a tangential relationship to the current administration was somehow involved with the Chicago schools. Valerie Jarrett’s 84 year old mother still agitates through the CPS system. They’ve been cranking out Commies for years.

Well, I must say looking at those photos, and the size of some of those pantloads, it’s obvious that those poor teachers must have had mountains of food forced down their throats. Probably by nasty tea partyers. Yeah...Bush and Cheney too.

Limited work days and nine-month work years. What are these people complaining about?

They don't even work 9 months a year. I added up all the days the kids were actually in school, and it averaged 6 months. They only work HALF of what those who are paying them have to work.

So, because teachers only work half a year, they should only be paid half their wages. That's all the taxpayers would get if they only worked half a year. Why not keep things fair, just as they ask? Cut their pseudo-welfare checks in half.

She threw gasoline onto the fire of class warfare, and even mentioned mob killings of wealthy Americans.

Thanks to libtard government interventionism, pressure-group warfare is becoming more and more serious. When this is combined with the Marxist doctrine of class interest,in such conditions, growing conflict and hostility develop among the various groups, culminating in violent clashes and, ultimately, in demands for political separation.

When Countrywide Financial’s CEO had a $140 million salary in 2007, and cut it to $102 million in 2008 (incidentally he also had lots of stock), the market killed him. NO more Countrywide, no more stock value. Forget unions, time for the stockholders to get bold and angry.

No surprises. Observed them in their own environment at Outbound tours at my local open mike outlet in the Village, back when I lived in New York. These are far left moonbats with no interest whatever in teaching kids reading, writing, ‘rithmatic, and least of all reasoning. If you have kids in public school, take them out. Home school them. Pay private school tuition. Refuse to pay your property taxes.

So their record is less than 50% of students graduate from high school and the other half have a huge chance of being shot before their 19th birthday!! But the "rich" who are paying their salaries are the evil ones.

506 people, mostly young adults were shot and killed in Chicago last year. I think that is more than died in Afghanistan, who would know no one is talking about our soldiers.

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